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Betsy Bird interviewed Nadja Spiegelman on facebook live.

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WATCH The video here

“Taking it upon yourself to be seen is a huge part of this story.”

—Betsy Bird



Author, blogger, librarian, mom, and all-around rock star Betsy Bird interviewed author Nadja Spiegelman about her newest TOON Graphic, Blancaflor, the Hero with Secret Powers: A Folktale from Latin America​.

Working with master cartoonist, Sergio García Sánchez, Nadja Spiegelman took a classic Latin American tale and wrote a version that empowers young girls to take up space and be seen. She chose to shift the focus to the true hero of the story: Blancaflor. 

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Spiegelman explained, “I didn’t just want to write a girl power fairytale that was only ‘girls can do everything boys can do,’ so I aimed at something that went deeper than that."

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"Blancaflor is about the amount of invisible labor that women do—and the ways in which that work isn’t seen and valued in the same way as other kinds of work.”


“I wanted to make this story format of ‘maiden as helper to the hero’ into one where the helping that she does is seen as the heroic element..."

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"...and where the heroine has to learn to show off her true powers.” 

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AVAILABLE IN FOUR EDITIONS: English hardcover and paperback, and Spanish hardcover and paperback

WATCH The video here!
more about the book

From the Introduction by
award-winning author F. Isabel Campoy

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"Folktales often contain moral lessons; instead of telling us how to behave, they show us the implications of good and bad behavior. They also help us develop our social and emotional intelligence as we empathize with the different perspectives of the heroes and villains."

Lesson Plan for Blancaflor

Prepared by Richard Kutner, the head of the TOON Educational Team, our Teacher Guide outlines the ELA Common Core Standards to support standards-based instruction in the classroom using Blancaflor.

Objectives for students include:

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  • Helping children learn to appreciate and use their own talents.
  • Helping children gain an understanding of the strength and resourcefulness of women.
  • Helping children gain an understanding of the variety of ways text and images work together to bring out the underlying ideas driving a literary narration.

Our lesson plans are the perfect companion to classroom-based learning as well as to at home reading activities!

download the lesson plan here
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